Bob Diamond may have been a couple of years too early when he said that bankers should stop apologising.
At a time of coalition government, with Ed Miliband making regular attacks from the sidelines, politicians were in no mood to let bankers off the hook for a crisis that cost taxpayers more than £1 trillion.
That was even before it emerged that bankers had not only been incompetent and reckless, but also criminal. Revelations in 2012 that staff at Barclays manipulated the Libor rate along with bankers at other lenders cost Mr Diamond his job and cemented antibanker sentiment.
The break point was this year’s general election, when a surprise majority emboldened the Tory government to act on long-held plans to reset radically the relationship with bankers.
In quick succession, the head of the Financial Conduct Authority was effectively fired; the first tranche of taxpayers’ shares in Royal Bank of Scotland was sold; and, yesterday, the government abandoned what was to be its most powerful tool against bad bankers — forcing them to prove innocence.
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This shift has emboldened bank bosses to think big. John McFarlane, the executive chairman of Barclays, has raised the possibility of creating a European investment banking champion to compete with US rivals.
The big unknown is whether the government also wants a home-grown investment banking champion, with the potential financial and conduct risks that come with that, or is happy for London to be a US outpost.
For all the cosying-up that the Treasury has done, the City will not really return to pre-crisis times unless ministers believe that Britain needs its own investment banks. Many say that it absolutely does not.